Bosses, badges and bon apetit
New school years bring new people and new stuff. In addition to hundreds of new students and teachers, there will be plenty of new principals when the bell rings this week and next: About a quarter of Atlanta Public School principals are new, including aboaut 70 percent of the high school honchos. More than 20 Fulton schools will have new principals, and Cobb County has about a dozen new ones.
Cobb will also have more of a feature that probably wasn’t part of your parents’ school day: 11 new school police officers.
Remember blackboards? You must be old. Today it’s interactive whiteboards, and DeKalb is adding more than 2,000 of those, along with more than 16,000 new computers to aid teachers. Technology gets on the bus, too, as the DeKalb district equips its whole fleet with GPS.
Gwinnett may be hoping some kids don’t learn to say ‘yuck’ to cafeteria food in French or Spanish. As it launches an immersion program in those languages at three elementaries, the district is also considering its cuisine. Menu items include “Peruvian boneless wings” and crispy chicken sandwiches with Sriracha spread. And 25 more cafeterias will go way beyond tater tots. Now, they’ll now have a salad bar.
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Trennis Harvey has been an educator for nearly 19 years. He wouldn’t exactly say he’s nervous before the first day of school.
“But you always have this little tingling in you,” said Harvey, principal of Heritage Academy in southeast Atlanta. “I like the tingle. It always keeps you on your toes.”
Harvey offers three key pieces of advice for students at the start of this school year:
Keep an open mind. “Classmates may have differences — you have to keep an open mind to accept the differences you may see in the classroom,” he said.
Be willing to take on challenges, like the new state tests students will take this year.
And read. Then read some more: fiction, nonfiction, even comic books or video game manuals. “Reading is my big drive because reading spurs everything that we do,” he said.
Students in Atlanta and other metro Atlanta school districts start heading back to school Monday — and students in some schools have already started. Read on to learn what’s new this year in Atlanta-area public schools.
Atlanta
School starts: Aug. 4
Estimated 2014-15 enrollment: 50,000
What’s new: Many Atlanta Public Schools high schools will have new principals this year. About 70 percent of high school principals — and about a quarter of all Atlanta principals — are new this year. Two Atlanta high schools, Washington and Therrell, will be structured differently this year, in a move away from the “small school” setup that was part of earlier district changes. And APS has a new top boss, too: Meria Carstarphen officially became the superintendent in July.
In the past several weeks, an APS campaign has encouraged more students to show up on the first day of school rather than later on in the year. Carstarphen says she is personally involved in ensuring that the first day of school goes smoothly.
“You can’t have people trust you when you can’t figure out how to run a bus route on time,” she said.
Cobb
School starts: Aug. 4
Estimated 2014-15 enrollment: 110,162
Cobb schools hired about 850 new teachers, 11 new police officers and about a dozen new principals for this school year. The new police officers mean the district will have at least one certified police officer at all high schools and middle schools
All district employees will get a 1 percent “pay restoration” this year, partially restoring the 2 percent pay cut of five years ago. And, for the first time in several years, there will be no furlough days for employees.
This is Cobb interim superintendent Chris Ragsdale’s first full school year in that role.
DeKalb
School starts: Aug 11
Estimated 2014-15 enrollment: 100,563
What’s new: This is a year of new technology for the DeKalb County School District. The district will provide 16,086 new computers for teachers and staff, and every classroom is being outfitted with whiteboards, with more than 2,000 installed over the summer.
A new student information system, Infinite Campus, will provide a new grade book for teachers and a new portal for parents and students. Parents will find notices of grades and attendance on the portal, and students will be able to schedule classes.
Teachers will have a new technology academy that will enhance their technology skills, and they’ll have more control over the Internet in their classrooms. During the school year, the district will also increase wireless capacity from 120,000 to 210,000 devices. Technology will even follow students home: all buses have been equipped with a global positioning system.
Fulton
School starts: Aug. 11
Estimated 2014-15 enrollment: 96,300
By the summer’s end, Fulton County Schools will have welcomed nearly 700 new teachers, bringing the district’s total teaching force to about 6,800. The district used partnerships with Georgia Teaching Fellows, Teach For America, and Georgia Tech’s Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning to place more than 60 teachers in science, technology, engineering and math and other content areas.
More than 20 schools will have new principals.
Some Fulton schools will get increased flexibility from rules and regulations this year thanks to requests made under the district’s charter system status. Examples of the 18 approved requests that go into effect this year include a waiver allowing Centennial High School to grant physical education credit to students who participate in certain athletics, club sports, or marching band and a waiver allowing Northview High School to apply a class-size waiver to offer some larger Advanced Placement courses, allowing more students to enroll.
Gwinnett
School starts: Aug 5
Estimated 2014-15 enrollment: 172,383
What’s new: Gwinnett has two new schools this year, Northbrook Middle School, in the Peachtree Ridge cluster, and North Metro Academy of the Performing Arts, a startup charter school serving grades K-6 this year. Gwinnett is also launching college/career academies at five high schools and dual language immersion programs at three elementary schools where students will learn English and either French or Spanish.
Gwinnett students and parents should double-check their daily planners. Several schools including Berkmar High, Duluth High, Meadowcreek High, GIVE Center East, Monarch School and Oakland Meadow School will have new starting or ending times.
And 25 Gwinnett schools are adding salad bars this year, funded with grant proceeds. Among the menu highlights — salad bar and otherwise — students can expect this year are “Peruvian boneless wings,” crispy chicken sandwiches with Sriracha spread, and an expanded “Brunch for Lunch” program.
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